Hibs in 'chaos' promise ahead of UEFA Conference League clash with Legia - star man Bowie backed to shine
Socceroos star backs Scotland prospect - plus latest video bulletin from Warsaw
Embrace the chaos caused by Kieron Bowie. Stick to the plan. And trust in this Hibs team to show the mettle that saw them rise from the ashes to blaze a trail across the Scottish Premiership … and beyond?
Martin Boyle is adamant that helping David Gray’s team reach the UEFA Conference League would be as big an achievement as he’s experienced during his various spells at Easter Road. That stand-in skipper, still deputising for long-term injury victim Joe Newell, is also confident that he and his team-mates have the ability to overturn last week’s 2-1 home defeat by Legia Warsaw – and claim a famous victory in the Polish capital tomorrow night.
Central to this belief? Being so close to the action as he watches Scotland striker Kieron Bowie bully and batter defenders with his unpredictable style.
Bowie celebrates with Boyle in Belgrade
Veteran Socceroos star Boyle, who believes Bowie’s call-up for next month’s World Cup qualifiers represents another major step in the career of a super-talented 22-year-old, can at least guarantee that the young Scot won’t suffer some of the same teething problems that affected his own early days in international football, pointing out: “Probably the jet lag affected me, I don't think he’ll need to worry about that! But yeah, I felt really good, it takes your game to that extra level I feel.
“You're going into international football; you're playing with the best players in your country. And no doubt he's playing with some incredible talent in that squad. That can only raise his game, can only make him better. And he'll learn a lot from it.
“He’s still a young boy, he's huge for his age. You can see the chaos that he causes.
“And obviously he's had a few goals this season, the wonder goal he scored against Partizan as well. So yeah, he's really thriving at the moment. Hopefully we can keep him fit and thriving, and he can score more goals for this club.
‘Incredible career’ predicted for Scotland striker
“Absolutely, his confidence will be lifted by the call-up. It did that with me. It's massive, it's massive for him. It's great for the football club.
“He's our main No. 9 at the moment. So hopefully he can keep progressing, hopefully he can keep learning. And no doubt he'll have an incredible career.”
Revealing the low-key nature of the news about Bowie’s call-up broke on Monday afternoon, Boyle said: “I think we just found out on his phone when he came back in from training. We obviously don't make a big deal of it these days! He probably already knew, and he just never told us!
“It’s a great moment for him. So yeah, hopefully he can produce the same for the international team as he has for the club.
“I think it's just the experience, playing with really, really top players, the individual talent that he'll be playing with, the boys behind him in that midfield, it's incredible. I've already seen it.
“I think you just experience it all and you take it all in. And no doubt if he gets the opportunity, he'll be able to score goals. That's what he does.
“But at the same time, he has to be patient. It's extremely difficult. And when you get your opportunity, you have to take it. I'm sure he will.”
Playing alongside Bowie is forcing Boyle, a man of many positions and several different strike partners over the years, to adjust to things on the fly, as he explained: “He’s hard to read at times. I don't know what he's going to do!
“But in terms of that physicality, he's got everything. He can head the ball, he can score unbelievable goals, his build up play is excellent.
“I've played with a lot of big boys in my time. He probably reminds me a bit of Christian Doidge, but more mobile.
“He's a young boy, but he's huge. And you know how he uses his body, which is tremendous.
“He can bring other people into play. And not just that, he scores goals, which is fantastic. And I want him to continue.
“You've seen how big Legia are in the back three. It’s great to have that physicality and that main threat up front.
“But at the same time, if he's going to be occupied, we need to move the ball. And we need to get him in that goal scoring opportunities for him to score goals. So that will be heavily reliant on us.
“If we can get him in those opportunities, I have no doubt that he will contribute with a lot of goals. Obviously we'll have to go over there and score two goals to progress, and hopefully we can do that. We've got the firepower to do that.”
Hibs trail Legia 2-1 after first-leg play-off loss at Easter Road
With Bowie and Boyle in partnership, plus the likes of Thibault Klidje to throw on as a different kind of forward option, there’s no denying that Hibs have the armoury needed to do some damage at the Polish Army Stadium. Whether they can hit the home side without sustaining several counter strikes in return is a different matter.
The one real bonus for Gray lies in the unseen qualities contained within this group. A squad augmented by new talent, of course. But built around a group who dragged themselves out of the relegation zone to finish third in the top flight.
Going through that adversity meant that, when ‘their’ prize of automatic European league phase football was snatched away by Aberdeen’s shock Scottish Cup win over Treble-chasing Celtic, there was no woe-is-us response from a gang of hardened battlers who simply doubled down on their determination to get there the hard way. The Hibs way, even.
“We've been through it all here, haven't we?” said Boyle, with a grin, the veteran adding: “You just take it in your stride, to be honest.
“We obviously don't want to put this opportunity to waste. We know how hard we worked last season to get in this position.
“And we feel it's a great opportunity to claim group phase football. Fingers crossed we can do that.
“But we need to earn the right, we need to be mentally strong. The manager's really installed what he wants to do over there. So as long as we can execute that game plan, we have full trust in what he wants to do. No doubt that we can win the game.
“We’ve shown for about a year now how effective we can be. Don't get me wrong, there'll be spells in the game where we're going to be under pressure, but as long as we soak that up and hurt them going another way, we have the ability to do that.
“We need to score goals; we need to take the chances that we possibly never did in the other night. So hopefully we can get in those attacking positions and score goals.
“We set our targets on Europe early doors. We know the prize at stake for players, for the club itself, and how big it is for the fan base.”
On a personal level, Boyle doesn’t hesitate to put a play-off win against Legia – securing group stage/league phase football for the first time in Hibs history - on a par with anything he’s done in his Easter Road career, saying: “It would definitely be up there, yeah. It would be up there for the club itself, historically, and it'd be nice to tick it off.
“If we could start the way we did the other night, in the first leg, we could have been 1-0 up in about 30 seconds, as positive as it could be. So we need to be defensively strong and take our chances when they come.
“We try and get on the attacking front, set the tone early, either it's a tackle, a corner or a shot. That's what we try and do, we try and get in their faces early doors.
“This is huge, everyone's excited, we all know what we have to do. We're really confident that we can get league phase football for the football club.
“It's not just given to us. They're in the same position, it'll be massive for them as well. But whoever wants it more on the night will take it, and hopefully it's us.”